I can do hard things!

I cannot believe another transfer has gone by. This week was "the day" again! I got to be with Sister Hurst a.k.a. my mission sister! (Sister Smyth trained both of us) yeah so that was incredible. We spent the whole day talking in accents and laughing our heads off. Oh how I wish I would have been able to serve around her more. She is going home next transfer but I just love her to pieces. We spent the whole day dashing from appointment to appointment and having a ball the whole time. Too great! She taught me how to do an indian accent while I attempted to teach her a french accent. Making my family proud! Ranching- Okay so I know Brother Chinchilla sent Dad pictures but now I have to tell you the stories to go along with it! It felt so good to put on some pants and play in the mud/chicken poop. I have decided I will own a pet chicken for the rest of my life. They are just too fun! I spent at least half of the morning trying to catch Bertha the chicken. She was my friend as soon as I had food. My kinda girl! So yeah she was awesome. Then we also go to hang out with the horses and the dog (if you could even call them dogs.) It was so fun! The Chinchillas ranch is a rescue ranch so all of the animals were abused or have something going on with them. I loved being back with Horses. We aren't allowed to ride horses as missionaries but we sure get to play with them! Oh I was in heaven. We also helped the Chinchilla's make shelters for the horses and while doing that WE CAUGHT A GECKO! Yeah it was pretty much the best. One of their dogs is named carlos. He was abused so he doesn't have any teeth so his tongue just hangs out of his mouth. That thing is evil but he is so funny! My day of ranching was for sure a success! Right after ranching we went and helped an old lady organize her family history records. It was a very diverse day in Rincon. Speaking of diverse. We are teaching a family from Syria. There are 8 people living in the house but only 3 of them know English. We got them Arabic Book of Mormons they love reading out of it. The first time we went over they were all sitting in a circle on the floor eating this bread/cookie thingy and mate (wrong spelling? the south american tea stuff). We spent the whole first visit sitting in a circle eating and drinking freaky food. They told us about how churches there get burned down really regularly so they came here so that they could be better Christians and worship the God that they love. It was amazing to me how much faith they truly have had to have in order to stand up for what they believe it. Teaching them has taught me how simple the gospel really is. Because they don't speak very good english we have to teach as simply as possible. I'm trying to learn a little bit of Arabic but it's kinda a huge struggle! Funny story: An appointment canceled and we didn't have any more back ups to try. We attempted to go tracking. The first house that we went to we were about to pass through the gate to get onto their porch and then noticed that their porch was full of goats! We were literally attempting to knock on the huge mansion but the goats were in the way! I wanted to get a picture but it was raining and most people have cameras so I controlled myself. That is one way too keep people from knowing on your door- turn your porch into a goats play pin. They had slides and everything! Last p-day we got to have a snowball fight! We put flower in nylons and threw them at each other! Oh the struggles of winters in Arizona! It was a good final p-day though! okay the computer is kicking me off now but I love you all so much! Miracles are happening in Rincon and I am so blessing to be able to be here right now. I love this work! I love you all! I love chickens! But most of all I love this restored gospel. It is the one and only true gospel on the earth today! Have a good week! Thank you for everything! :) -Sister Barton

This is the pet gecko that I love! Sister Chinchilla felt bad that she made us let him go so the next time that we went over she had a plastic lizard for us to keep as a pet. She's the sweetest!

We asked the elders to help with making the snowballs.....this is what they did.